Prologue: Awake
The world could be so cruel.
The world was cruel, in all it’s functionality and simple laws.
How it wouldn’t give the harmless, little caterpillar the chance to grow into a beautiful butterfly, but be food to a hungry bird on the way. There was no mercy in the concept of nature for the weak. The strongest would survive and fight for their reign without any second thought to the weak of their kind. And it worked that way.
Mercy is a concept humans brought to this world. And with mercy comes hope and the pain of the realization that some humans are cruel. Cruel like the animals they say they stand above, not seeing any advantage in being merciful.
He learned that tonight. And it changed him in his view at the world. He learned today that nobody was spared when you’re weaker and that there is nothing like justice. Innocence wouldn’t survive here.
The man could still smell the fire, could still see the blood, and the tears of the little girl pressed to his chest not long ago, hadn’t dried.
He was stumbling through the beautiful and neatly garden, with all the color arranged flowers which were glowing in the pale moonlight.
Normally he would appreciate the hours of work someone invested in this little paradise, but today nothing of all that mattered.
With shaky legs, he sat down on the edge of one of the few little water pools, surrounded by trees, looking at the dark surface of the water.
He could see the stars of the night sky mirrored on the water. Today he couldn't find any beauty in them.
Something broke the surface of the calm water, sending little waves in rings from the intrusion. He realized he was crying, his tears falling down on the waters mirror, crumbling his face.
He bit down a sob, a scream fighting his way up his throat. Why? Why, why why???
He wanted to scream, to doom all the gods, to just run away from what was coming. But he couldn't.
He knew he couldn't leave, taking his little sister and just go, never looking back.
The beautiful man looked up to the moon, tears still flowing over his face. His heart was arching, mourning the loss of his family, his friends and all the losses and sacrifices the future holds.
He would run, if he could. He was scared, so, so scared but he has now a responsibility, a task he needs so complete no matter what. He felt weak under this task, so weak. He wasn’t ready. How could something so cruel be demanded from him ?
"For the sake of our whole world" they told him.
"For my little sister" he whispers to the old trees, standing still in the dark. For his little sister and her future. He can't be that selfish and doom her, the way he was doomed.
He couldn't hold his sobs in any longer. The man broke down by the the pool, under the moonlight, in this beautiful garden, feeling utterly alone. Never will anyone know from the burden he's bearing. Never could he share his tears with somebody. Never could he fail, or his sister would have to pay the price.
He was alone, crying to the flowers, wailing to the stars in his pain. How could life be so cruel, how could it demand him to sacrifice everything when he had already lost too much.
He never asked for that, he never wanted to live for that. And yet, here he was, having no choice than to accept his fate and trying to keep the last person safe he still cared for.
‘Tomorrow you will be strong, tomorrow you will accept and start playing your role like you're supposed to’ , he promised himself.
But today he will cry until he hasn't any tears left. Today he will be only the young man, who lost his life to a fate he can't escape.
But today he's already alone. So alone.
Alone with his promise, the sky, his tears and the light he could feel in his heart. A hope for his land and it's people. If he's ready to be that hope.
If he's ready to sacrifice everything.
The hall was cold. No light burning, no flame lighting up the walls.
Another man stands in its middle, fighting a beginning headache, shuddering from the cold. What has he done ? What did he cause?
He had been so sure of his self, so utterly convinced of his destiny to rule this world. But now there is this nagging doubt. This voice that was screaming at him, the only sanity he has left.
But the fight was already lost. The other voices already being a chorus in his head, filling him with nothing than euphoria.
"We will rule, take what is rightful ours and be untouchable”.
“We can do anything you want, take anything you want and be gods in this pathetic little world”.
“Wouldn't you like that, my king?
Wouldn't you love to have everything too your feet?".
The voices didn't stop, whispering in his head and dripping in his thoughts. He knows they're right. They're right, they just needed to be. He didn’t mind the feeling of his last clear thoughts being washed away by the bliss of power.
He stands alone in this big hall, looking out of the great colored windows over his city, his land, his world.
He groaned, the voices where so tempting, so powerful. He just needed to say yes and he would be a god.
Greed shut up the voice telling him that there was something wrong, the cold black, the voices calling from it and killing every doubts he had, making him go pliant under the touch of the darkness, under the power he could feel.
"Welcome" it told him. Soon, he thought. Soon he will be everything he wanted to be.
"Yes"
Just like this he lost himself and just like that he cursed his land and people with endless pain and fear.
This world was going to burn.
The darkness creeped down the stairs, welcoming the new world that was waiting to be taken.
Stories tell that at the end, light and darkness will fight over reign. Voices whisper that the world will end like it all begun: a vast void. What comes after that, nobody knows.
If these voices are true, still needs to be proven.
